Opinion
No. 05-13-00958-CV
02-27-2014
IN THE INTEREST OF I.L.S., A CHILD
On Appeal from the 255th Judicial District Court
Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. DF-09-7655
ORDER
Before the Court are two motions filed by appellant. The first motion is appellant's February 10, 2014 motion requesting a ruling on his requests (1) to serve papers in this case on D. Smith & Sims and (2) to accelerate or give preference to this appeal. We DENY appellant's motion.
The second motion is appellant's February 24, 2014 motion to compel the Clerk of this Court to file his brief. Appellant's brief was due on January 31, 2014. The Court received appellant's brief on February 10, 2014. In a postcard notice dated February 10, 2014, the Clerk of this Court notified appellant that his brief would not be filed unless he filed, within ten days, a motion for extension of time to file the brief along with a $10 filing fee. This postcard notice was sent in error as appellant deposited his brief in the prison mail on January 29, 2014. See Ramos v. Richardson, 228 S.W.3d 671, 673 (Tex. 2007) (per curiam). We GRANT appellant's motion and we ORDER the brief tendered to this Court by appellant on February 10, 2014 filed as of that date.
However, appellant's brief is deficient for the following three reasons:
(1) The table of contents does not indicate the subject matter of each issue. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.1(b).
(2) The brief exceeds the page limit of fifty pages. See TEX. R. APP. P. 9.4(2)(B).
(3) The appendix does not contain a copy of the trial court's judgment. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.1(k)(1)(A). Accordingly, on the Court's own motion, we STRIKE appellant's brief. We ORDER appellant to file an amended brief correcting the above-noted deficiencies on or before MARCH 31, 2014. We caution appellant that failure to file an amended brief on or before MARCH 31, 2014 will result in dismissal of the appeal without further notice.
ADA BROWN
JUSTICE